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to caring for the elderly. He encouraged this Board to encourage the Manager to set up a meeting with the new Chair and the university and talk about what their involvement is going to be in the new senior center. This meeting needs to be set up as soon as possible. Chair Jacobs said that he and Commissioner Brown are going to represent this Board in the Horace Williams planning. They are in the process of setting up a meeting and they will mention this cooperative venture. Commissioner Brown suggested that Jack Chestnut go to the municipalities about the senior housing, because the County usually does not deal with apartment complexes. Commissioner Carey made reference to the process that will eventually result in two senior centers and he suggested asking the Manager to make a recommendation. Chair Jacobs said that when the County Manager, the Hillsborough Town Manager, Mayor and Mayor Pro tem of Hillsborough met, the Mayor of Hillsborough brought up an interest in affordable housing. Tara Fikes and Robert Dowling will followup on this matter. Chair Jacobs made reference to the goal on the Master Aging Plan and asked that it be rewritten using the goals as adopted in the Master Aging Plan as a guide. It would be useful to address the ongoing implementation. b. Arts Commission Jeff Cohen, Chair of the Arts Commission, thanked the County Commissioners and the County Manager for supporting their request far afull-time director. The interview process will begin this month. The interim director has worked out well. Also, the board is short a few members, and a recommendation has been submitted for the County Commissioners' consideration at their next meeting. He said that the strategic plan was over a year old. They had a successful artists' salon recently, which enabled some local artists to network. They have also revised the grant process to make it easier for organizations and artists to apply. He mentioned that there was a scholarship fund created for young dancers in Orange County for which they provided administrative support and direction on how to set up such a fund. Chair Jacobs asked about the goal to identify meeting and resource space. Jeff Cohen said that this is related to the Arts Commission moving into new space. c. Board of Health Dr. Jonathan Klein, Chair and member of the Board of Health, said that on behalf of the entire Board he would like to thank the County Commissioners for their support. Specifically, the new positions in the Health Department have enabled them to make good progress in fulfilling both state and local mandates. Specifically the immunization registry rate has increased from 14°~ to 46°~ as of November. The publication of the first local health report card in the state, in conjunction with Healthy Carolinians of Orange County, is both the end of the initial process begun in 1995 and the beginning of a new process of improving the grades in high priority areas. He requested a joint meeting with the Board in the spring to bring the Board up to date on the strategic plan and the next steps. He said that even though County and department resources might be less next year, these are times when there are heightened needs for the types of services that the Health Department provides. Issues that are not dependent on the economy include the fact that the County continues to experience communicable disease events that require immediate responses. The syphilis rate has increased from three to 24 cases in the past year. This highlights the need to continue the community- wide approach to controlling sexually transmitted disease. Also, the need to improve and strengthen the public health surveillance systems and response capabilities are in the forefront.